“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: Return To Macross #17

For the record, Battletech has a right to exist and it’s pretty cool. The problem is the early years, when they outright lifted Macross/Robotech Battloid designs.

In the previous issue (which I don’t own) Shane’s PTSD reliving of his time escaping a POW camp during the Global War led to him stealing a Destroid and rampaging through Macross City. Gleason was killed when the police show up and Roy was arrested. I’m not sure WHY he was arrested. According to a news report in this issue he tried to stop him with a Veritech. Whatever happened, the press is having a field day. This is good news for “The Faithful” a group secretly composed of civilian and military personnel who see Robotechnology as dangerous. While the current leader, Davies (his first name isn’t given in this issue), gets an interview to promote his opinion but one member, Anatole Leonard, disagrees. He and a woman named Jessie leave, and she notes others agree with his desire to take a harsher stand. This includes one of the mechanics, who helps set a trap when Roy shows up to the hearing in a Veritech to show that it is just a machine and Robotech itself isn’t the danger. On his way back someone tries to shoot him down but Roy manages to barely pull her up and return to base. Roy knows things are about to get worse.

What they got right: If there are people against guns or the military today certainly there would be people opposed to Robotechnology, and I hope an earlier story explained what their exact grievance is. It also makes sense that there’s a fanatical arm to the group. Roy may be a risk taker but he knows how to do it right. Someone else could have hurt their case with that stunt, even without the missile being fired at him.

What they got wrong: I know during the second war Supreme Commander Leonard was an idiot who was often a problem for the 15th ATAC but he was never shown to be against Robotechnology. He just cared more about winning the war than he did his troops. So why is he so fanatically anti-Robotech in this series that he tries to shoot one down, hoping it will cause great death and damage? He seems to be an antagonist here just so they can use him as an antagonist, or in this case an outright villain.

Recommendation: This is an interesting issue and while I don’t know if it’s considered canon by the Robotech rights holders (there’s a big legal nightmare right now between Harmony Gold and pretty much everybody, which I referenced in the intro) but I consider it canon. It’s worth checking into.

It’s nice to hear the stories on what happened in the early days of Robotechnology’s arrival on Earth. You’re right in that Battletech had the right to exist. It was a decent creative property. Something that a Robotech fan such as myself got into. It was a cool game. I had two or three issues of the Battletech comic too. Hey, if Robotech had a role playing board game with stand up board representations of the mecha, then I would have gotten such a Robotech role playing board game instead. There was a Robotech roleplaying game, but it didn’t have a board game component to it. Having Battletech to play with, there was no need for me to get a Robotech role playing game.